Attitude of Military Personnel to the Challenge of Culture:

Initial FindingsJ.L. Szalma & P.A. Hancock

University of Central Florida

D.P. McDonaldDefense Equal Opportunity

Management Institute (DEOMI)

Change in Warfare

Kinetic Akinetic

Not an Entirely New Idea• “The supreme art of war is to subdue the

enemy without fighting”

• “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting”

• “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you victory will not stand in doubt.”

-Sun Tzu

Understanding my own culture is important for mission

effectiveness

65% agree or strongly agree

29% neither agree nor disagree

6% disagree or strongly disagree

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

Cultural awareness is important for mission effectiveness.

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

76% agree or strongly agree

20% neither agree nor disagree

4% disagree or strongly disagree

Training in language is enough to prepare military personnel

for an international deployment.

Totally Disagree Totally Agree

Air Force20% agree or strongly agree47% neutral33% disagree or strongly disagree

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

Army23% agree or strongly agree28% neutral49% disagree or strongly disagree

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

Navy

17% agree or strongly agree23% neutral60% disagree or strongly disagree

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

Marines26% agree or strongly agree37% neutral37% disagree or strongly disagree

Class-room training for development of cultural

awareness/competency would be helpful in preparing me for an

international deployment

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

Air Force59% agree or strongly agree

12% disagree or strongly disagree

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

Army65% agree or strongly agree

8% disagree or strongly disagree

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

Navy69% agree or strongly agree

7% disagree or strongly disagree

Totally Disagree

Totally Agree

Marines

56% agree or strongly agree

10% disagree or strongly disagree

Cultural Readiness

• Cultural competency• Cultural Awareness• Skills

– Language– Social interaction (e.g., rules)– Perception of cultural cues– Selection of appropriate response

Assessment of Attitudes, Perceptions, and Needs

• Assess general attitudes regarding:– Importance of culture for deployment– Importance and Quality of Training– Gaps in training– Prior cross-cultural experience– Perceptions regarding chain of command with

respect to cultural issues– Attitudes toward culture & the military

• Apply assessment data to:– identify learning objectives for cultural

readiness/awareness– Develop definitions of cultural readiness for DoD

Empirical Approach

• Develop survey questions for administration with the DEOMI Organizational Climate Survey (DEOCS)

• 14-15 items per administration• Identify:

– latent factors for needs, attitudes, and cultural awareness

– similarities and differences across services and ranks

Importance of Culture

• Attitudes regarding importance of culture emerged as a factor in each dataset

• Sample Questions:– How important do you believe cultural

understanding is in your military service?– How important do you believe it is for

military personnel in general to have cultural training?

– How important do you believe it is for military personnel to be trained to understand cross-cultural differences?

Importance of Culture as a Function of Branch (1st

Dataset)

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Air Force Army Navy Marines Coast Guard

Branch

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Interest in Cultural Understanding as a Function of Branch (4th

Dataset)

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Air Force Army Navy Marines Coast Guard

Branch

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Importance of Culture by Rank (1st Dataset)

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Junior Enlisted (E1-E6) Senior Enlisted (E7-E9) Junior Officer (O1-O3) Senior Officer (O4 & higher)

Rank

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Interest in Cultural Understanding by Rank (4th Dataset)

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Junior Enlisted (E1-E6) Senior Enlisted (E7-E9) Junior Officer (O1-O3) Senior Officer (O4 & higher)

Rank

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Perceived Readiness

•Perceptions of readiness for deployment to foreign countries•Aspects of foreign culture for which personnel believed they were:

–Well prepared–Poorly prepared

Sample Questions

• Do you believe you have been sufficiently prepared for deployment with respect to cultural training?

• Do you believe your chain of command values your training in:– cultural awareness– attitudes toward culture– language training

Perceived Readiness as a Function of Branch (Dataset

1)

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

AirForce

Army Navy Marines CoastGuard

Branch

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

JuniorEnlisted(E1-E6)

SeniorEnlisted(E7-E9)

JuniorOfficer

(O1-O3)

SeniorOfficer (O4& higher)

Rank

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Perceived Readiness as a Function of Rank (Dataset 1)

Perceived Need for Training

•Gaps in preparedness•Value of cultural training•Language•“do’s/don’ts”

Sample Questions

• How important you believe it is for personnel to receive training in cultural awareness?

• How important do you believe it is for personnel receive training in awareness of their own attitudes toward other cultures?

• To what extent do you believe that an increased emphasis on cultural training will result in greater mission success?

Importance of Understanding & Training as a Function of Branch

(Dataset 2)

2.5

2.55

2.6

2.65

2.7

2.75

2.8

2.85

Air Force Army Navy Marines Coast Guard

Branch

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Importance of Understanding & Training as a Function of Rank

(Dataset 2)

2.5

2.55

2.6

2.65

2.7

2.75

2.8

2.85

2.9

2.95

Junior Enlisted (E1-E6) Senior Enlisted (E7-E9) Junior Officer (O1-O3) Senior Officer (O4 & higher)

Rank

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Importance of Understanding & Training for Culture: Junior Enlisted

(2nd Dataset)

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3

Air Force Army Marines Navy Coast Guard

Branch

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Deployed

Not Deployed

n=4

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Air Force Army Marines Navy Coast Guard

Branch

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Deployed

Not Deployed

n=2

Importance of Understanding & Training for Culture: Senior Enlisted

(2nd Dataset)

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Air Force Army Marines Navy Coast Guard

Branch

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Deployed

Not Deployed

Importance of Understanding & Training for Culture: Junior Officer (2nd

Dataset)

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Air Force Army Marines Navy Coast Guard

Branch

Fa

cto

r S

co

re

Deployed

Not Deployed

Importance of Understanding & Training for Culture: Senior Officer

(2nd Dataset)

Prior Cultural Experience and Attitudes Toward Culture

Prior Cultural Experience

r=.32

Summary of Results

Forces Themselves Overwhelmingly recognize:• The importance of culture for mission success• The need for more formal training in cross-

cultural interaction• Buy-in (Importance of the study of culture for

the military)• Awareness of One’s own cultural biases is an

important concern

Summary of Results

• Know thyself– Military should facilitate the understanding by

recruits of their own culture

• Deployment Experience Changes the perception of need for cultural readiness– Intrinsic cultural lessons learned should be made

explicit in pre-deployment training

• Training needs must be tempered by rank and branch of service

Summary of Results

• Prior experience in multi-cultural situations (before military entry) provides insight into cultural readiness requirements– Pre-military cultural experience is an

important dimension of military recruiting

Toward A Measure of Cultural Competency

• Defining the Construct• Cultural Intelligence

– Cognitive– Motivational– Emotional

• Cultural Awareness– Understanding cultural:

• Self• Other

Facets of Culture

Cultural Intelligence

Cultural Intelligence

MindfulnessStress coping

strategies

Personality

Appraisals(e.g., harmful/

beneficial)

Tolerance ofAmbiguity

Foreign DeploymentExperience

Rank

??

Attitudes

• Perceived importance of culture• Attitudes toward other cultures• Attitudes toward own culture• Attitudes regarding the value of

cultural training by:– Self– Chain of command

• Attitude change pre-post deployment

Attitudes

Cognitiveflexibility

Stress copingstrategies

Personality

Attribution style

Foreign DeploymentExperience

Rank

??

A Valid Measure of Cultural Attitudes• Based on initial baseline, select items

for administration to a single large sample of personnel

• Establish underlying factor structure• Conduct studies to validate attitude

measure• Examine role of individual differences• Longitudinal studies

Validation Studies

• Cognitive and affective correlates of attitudes toward culture

• Personality– Openness to Experience– Extraversion– Stress appraisal and coping

• Attribution Style• Cognitive Flexibility• Tolerance for Ambiguity

Cultural Competency: A Force Multiplier

• Ultimate goals:– A clear definition of cultural

competency– A reliable and valid measure of

cultural competency– Development of Training procedures